December 23, 2011

But I just want to talk about CNN's grammar. In an effort to avoid saying "Democrat" for "Democratic," CNN has said "Democratic" when it makes no sense. "Democratic" is only an adjective, and Democrats are annoyed when Republicans use "Democrat" as an adjective instead of "Democratic," but when you want a noun, you need to say "Democrat."

I could imagine thinking an adverb was needed with "-controlled," but then it would be "Democratically-controlled" and "Republican-controlled" would lack parallelism. But you don't use an adjective to modify an adjective, and "-controlled" is obviously an adjective.

CNN is overcorrecting itself out of fear of lapsing into the conservative shibboleth "Democrat" for "Democratic."

ADDED: Test my point with another example, used with "-controlled": A school controlled by parents could be called a "parent-controlled" school. You wouldn't dream of calling it a "parental-controlled" school. You might consider "parentally-controlled" (and wouldn't you drop the hyphen?). "Parentally controlled school" wouldn't be grammatically wrong, but it would have the wrong meaning. It would be a school that was controlled in a parental fashion by who-knows-who, not a school controlled by parents.

My TV automatically switches between languages when I flip from Fox to CNN. I'm an early adopter and it it's very expensive so far, so you probably can't afford it until I use your portal to buy my Christmas presents tomorrow night.

I was watching CNN last night as someone pretending to be a neutral analyst was describing the Republican field as right wing extremists and the President as a centrist.

So now the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate in 2008 and probably the most left of any person ever elected to POTUS is a centrist, and anyone who wants the nation to return to 2005 levels of spending is an extremist.

It may not be perfect grammar, but the term "Democratic-controlled Senate" isn't unique to CNN. A simple Google search of that term pulls up lots of references to it, including from sources like Fox Business News. Language changes over time.

I heard the news on the radio during my morning commute to work and immediately called my best friend who agreed with me - if Republicans retain control of the House, they need to pick a new Speaker and we’re both making it a litmus test for any Republican candidates running for office. After seeing how he didn’t even make a good faith effort to get the $100 billion in spending cuts he and other Republicans campaigned on, the way he allowed Obama and Reid to get him to negotiate against himself during the debt ceiling debate and now this meaningless two-month extension of the payroll tax (which will create more compliance headaches for businesses that don’t need it) – a vote to retain John Boehner as Speaker of the House is essentially a vote by Republicans to surrender on every major issue during the next session of Congress.

"It may not be perfect grammar, but the term "Democratic-controlled Senate" isn't unique to CNN. A simple Google search of that term pulls up lots of references to it, including from sources like Fox Business News. Language changes over time."

If "Democratic" is now a noun, I hope you'll accept things like "Barack Obama is a Democratic" and "I'm going to register to vote as a Democratic."

CCN's motives may be as duplicitous as you say, but the phrasing is reasonable if they are referring to the names of the two parties, rather than the identifying term for party members. A member of the Republican Party is called a "Republican"; a member of the Democratic Party, however, is not called a "Democratic," but a "Democrat."

It is perfectly accurate, if profoundly clunky, to speak of the "Democratic [Party]-controlled Senate" and the "Republican [Party]-controlled House of Representatives."

I think John Boehner is doing a very good job of navigating in these waters, and it is highly regrettable that he got undercut by his own party's mandarins in a matter this important on principle and so hyped in the media.

And historically I think it has been Republican to Republican-Democratic to Democratic Party. However, on a day like this, grammar be damned!

"Republican" is both a proper noun and an adjective, and the Democrats use "Democratic" in the same way, although they also use "Democrat". The rules are based more on convention than grammar. They are the Democratic Party, but they aren't actually democratic.

McConnell and the Senate RINOs, in their eagerness to reach out across the aisle to their friends in the Democrat Party, cut the ground out from under Boehner.

And the reason you see "Democratic-controlled" is because Democrats are sensitive to the fact that, in the years after the Constitution was ratified, the word "democrat" was synonymous with a shameless panderer.

Hawkeye is off, though perhaps excusable given the verbal chicanery surrounding this mess.

The payroll tax is and was 15.65%. This has been temporarily reduced by 2% by act of Congress, making it necessary to make up the additional shortfall in Social Security (SS was already in the red) by additional borrowing for which we will be billed later with interest.

If anything good has come out of this, it must be that all pretense of Social Security being an "insurance" or "retirement savings" program has now been abandoned.

This comment cleared the grammat-controlled blog by unanimous consent, a proceduralic move allowing the comment to pass even though most readers of the blog are now home for the holidays, franticistically doing their last minute shopping.

I've never understood what's the big deal between Democrat and Democratic. Does it rise to official state sanctioned Shibboleth levels? Isn't a Shibboleth an HP Lovecraft monster? Does an IC added to the end of something prevent the rise of Things Mankind Was Not Meant to Know?

Oh, the temporary payroll tax reduction is called a "tax holiday," which sounds like a British term. he tax is not actually reduced, a benevolent Congress just excuses you from paying the 2% for a set period.

McConnell and the Senate RINOs, in their eagerness to reach out across the aisle to their friends in the Democrat Party, cut the ground out from under Boehner____________

If Boehner had not engaged in typical backroom politics, and had instead followed regular order, he would not have been burned.

The House is NOT a one-man operation -- especially NOT one run by that boob.

Boehner should have simply minded his own business. The House should have minded its own business instead of once again seeking to negotiate and "make a deal." It is f***ing insider games like this that have made a total clusterf*ck of modern governance.

If Boehner and the House had simply passed its own bill, a one-year bill, with a REAL vote (yeas and nays), and sent it to the Senate, Boehner would not have had this blow up in his face, as he deserved it to do.

It is his own damn fault. Quit trying to "negotiate," get out of the damned backroom, and legislate out in the open like the process is supposed to be done.

The overcorrection that annoys me most is the use of "I" or "myself" when they should use "me". Even Harvard educated presidents do this.

Back on topic, I agree that it should be "Democrat" not "Democratically". Does CNN say it that way when they are delivering the news on the air? I think people will use clunky expressions in their writing that they would intuitively know not to use when speaking.

Ah yes, the democrat party. The party that wants to give you everything and a government willing to do it as long as you pay for it. And the republican party, the silent majority of cowards who want to get along to go along so they don't look like scrooges.

Shibboleth was a Hebrew word which was pronounced differently by different Israelite tribes. Some pronounced it 'shibboleth', and others 'sibboleth'. During an Israelite civil war, the word was used to identify friend and foe.